Insurance claim - am I being thoroughly shafted??

[getyourgrooveon]

A couple of months ago our house was burgled . They stole a few things but what upset me the most is they stole my beautiful, expensive watch. It was bought to commemorate a special occasion and I don't think I will ever own anything this expensive again.
Long story short is the watch is no longer in production, it was bought for around £9000 in 2015. My insurance company is therefore offering a second hand replacement (I'm not keen on this) or £6000. I found a jewellers that had it on their website for £9300 but because it's out of stock the insurance company won't honour that price.
I just can't help but feel this is unfair.
The watch had small diamonds where the numbers were, they still sell the exact same one WITHOUT the diamonds and it's £7750. So with the £6000 I couldn't even get a downgraded replacement.

Please, I'm aware this is a first world problem and I'm lucky that I even had a watch that price that doesn't pass me by but please believe me when I say it was for something very special.

Am I being shafted or is this normal???

It sounds like you want new for old cover rather than like-for-like. Whether that's something you're entitled to depends on the nature of your policy, but like-for-like is pretty standard so I wouldn't say you're necessarily being shafted, no.

I just can't help but feel this is unfair.

^Not unfair at all. You should have obtained proper insurance that fully covered your watch then.

Why not take the second hand replacement so you're in exactly the same position as you were? You can't expect the original value in cash for a watch that is a few years old, unless you'd specifically committed to that extra when taking out the policy.

You poor thing, being burgled must be horrible.
I think it's pretty standard unfortunately . DP has taken out special insurance on his watch for this sort of thing, it's about £15 a year, worth considering when you replace the watch.

You should have obtained proper insurance that fully covered your watch then.

I thought it would be covered under the section that says

specified items^ - jewellery/watches -^ £10,000

Do you have New for Old cover in place? Otherwise they are totally right in offering you the equivalent watch (as in the same age, used, just as yours was)

Yeah we have seperate insurance for expensive items as well as house. It costs more but it's peace of mind.

You probably should take what they're offering and get it insured appropriately or the money to put towards a new watch.

Horrible experience burglary, I'm sorry man.

** Yea the burglary was horrible, they hurt my dog

The police caught them though as we had cctv but obviously no sign of our belongings

I used to work in insurance, insurers get huge discounts from jewellers which influences their cash settlement offer ie they’ll basically give you in cash what it costs them to replace the jewellery stolen. In your case it can’t be replaced so you’re entitled to the full value of the watch (pretty much all household policies are new for old). I’d go back and argue you’re entitled to the full value of the watch. Why aren’t you keen on the second hand replacement if it would give you the same watch?

In any case your cover is new for old, some jewellery gains value over time (I’d suspect a 9k watch would fall into that category) and you’re entitled to new for old unless your policy states otherwise.

Why are you not keen on the secondhand replacement option? Then you’d have exactly the same watch you lost?

** Maybe I'm being daft about the second hand thing but it makes me feel weird, to me watches are sentimental and I'll become obsessed with the story behind it (I know I know I'm weird)

Check your policies limit for valuables (which now includes things like personal electrical good) your settlement reds to be within the single item limit and all the valuables added up need to come under the overall valuables limit. So your assumption that jewellery up to £10k is fine as long as that’s a single item limit - if it’s an overall limit they’ll proportionately reduce your settlement to account for the other valuables covered by the policy - stolen or not.

In terms of the value in the shop that was out of stock, if it was in stock they would replace it directly for you and honestly it would probably cost them around £6k with insurers discounts so their offer isn’t unreasonable, if they can’t replace the watch I’d negotiate on the cash settlement.

You can't expect them to pay brand new price for a second hand watch. Unless you have new for old, which for some reason you haven't clarified.

What type of insurance do you have? That's the critical thing here. Without knowing that, nobody can tell you if this is fair or not.

Did you have new for old cover?